(4) In providing lectures and classes for the benefit of scholars who are attending or have attended any public elementary school in Kensington.
The trustees have power to raise and expend £50,000 in a building for the purpose of such lectures or classes.
The trustees may give rewards of £5 to apprentices for distinguished merit.
The trustees are bound, in administering the funds, to have regard to the wants of the poor of every part of the parish of Kensington, and to satisfy themselves that in each case the beneficiaries are, in respect of poverty and character, deserving of help. And no part of the income is ever to be applied, directly or indirectly, in aid of the poor rate of the parish.
I hope you notice the anxious and thoughtful care which has been taken to secure that the funds shall be properly administered in accordance with the true intention of the original donors, and with the needs and circumstances of the parish at the present time.
The gross annual income of the Campden Charity is now the magnificent sum of £4,382 19s., all derived from the original investment of £465 in land in the middle of the 17th century.
I have pursued the interesting subject of the Campden Charities as long as the time at our disposal will permit, and your patience can endure. I only wish further to impress upon you that the charity has an office at the Vestry Hall, Kensington, and a clerk, Mr. R. C. Green, to whom all applications can be made, and who is ready at all times to give information to anyone properly applying to him for the same.
Those of you who care to go further into the subject, I recommend to obtain the last annual report of the trustees, and to carefully peruse the same.
Some of the most interesting work done under the auspices of the trustees is that of the handicraft classes, both for boys and girls, in which practical instruction and carpentering for the one, and cookery and dressmaking and mending for the other, has for some time been given at S. Clement’s Mission Room and All Saints’ School Room.
And I think that the powers lately given to the trustees to provide a building and equipment for technical education have already been exercised, and active steps are being taken for its establishment amongst us.